Tori
by Nizhal Paava
Summary: "Kagome is a coward, Shishi. Every time she sees blood she hides under the tree's roots. So each time she gets bloody she hides and she pushes me in front just keep her hands clean. She claims to be my guardian but I'm the one guarding! ... Hey, should I kill myself? Then maybe I'll reach Seireitei and maybe I'll get to join your division." "It's only a maybe." "It is enough."
1. Chapter 1

Golden eyes locked on her and even though they were in the middle of war with the Spider, even though the Taijiya yelled at her to watch out for a piece of miasma laden flesh headed her way, she stopped and let the arrow loose without aiming. Its pink light sizzled out by her feet and she knew that InuYasha, Red as she'd lately started calling him in her mind, would give her one chance to purify the Spider and his Jewel, to make the Jewel her's again.

She felt her long bow slip through her fingers, it fell right next her arrow and she nodded. The youkai flesh the Taijiya warned her about screeched as it turned to ashes, slamming into a barrier she'd unconsciously put up. Oddly calm for someone surrounded by creatures out to kill her, she bend down and picked up her bow and then she and Red ran to the Spider.

One, two, three arrows she shot at Spider before realizing her quiver was empty. She dropped her bow again. This time intentionally.

Four, five, six times Silver attacked Spider with his new sword before noticing the miko-ki she was dangerously pouring into her finger tips.

Seven, eight and ni-no, only eight-did Red attack Spider before he was thrown away.

Nine, Spider's tentacle buried deep in her body and he pulled her to his face so that he could watch as the light left her eyes.

Ten, she drove her fingers into his chest and wrapped them around the Jewel, purifying the two of them. The whole of Spider's body, the very thing they were in, disappeared in a pink light and she was falling through the air. She felt it a good feeling, this weightlessness and was about to close her eyes before she saw the cursed Jewel falling with her. Not knowing why, she grabbed for it and it shot at her heart and the glowing hexagram her mother had she named for came again over her heart and she was engulfed by its yellow light. She felt the ground hit her on the left but there was no pain.


	2. Chapter 2

One, two three, she counted again foolishly, as her mother screamed and ran over to her.

Four, five, six, her grandfather called for an ambulance. Her mother was crying at her side. Why? She kept watching her.

Six-did I count six already?-seven, eight, two strangers lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her down the steps to the ambulance waiting. When did it come? She was lifted up in to it was taken to a nearby hospital. At least that's what's supposed to happen.

Nine, she reached and was rushed to the operating room. She fell asleep then. When she woke up again, she was in a well-lit white room. There were a lot of machines by her side; some of them were beeping. She saw bandages all over her; a cast on her left arm and bandages on her leg, bandages wrapped around her head, which she noted with horror, was shaved bald. There was also heavy bandaging around her torso. She fell asleep again.

The next time she woke up, the light from the window was orange and her mother was asleep next to her. The bandage around her head and some other Band-Aids were gone. Her head was still bald, doesn't matter, it'll grow back soon. The door opened a bit and for some reason, she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. A young woman's voice, sweet but strained, called out to her mother, telling her that there was someone on the phone asking for her. Well and good.

"No. How did he know?"

".." The nurse didn't reply and once again reminded her of the call.

"Let's hear what he wants then." Mama said, getting up and blowing past the nurse, looking for a split second the strong, gorgeous college girl she had been when she met Tou-chan. Ah, why was Kagome thinking of Tou-chan? She closed her eyes again.

And opened them in that place.

She didn't know what that place was but it felt very intimate. So much so that Kagome had lied that one time when Kaede had tried to get her to meditate.

When she went in there, she would see the Goshinboku complete with its scar where InuYasha had been struck. The Sun was soft and the branches of the tree was dancing with an invisible, intangible breeze. If she had taken the time to look down at herself, she would see a bleeding broken body littered with numerous scars and in her left hand, tightly clenched, she would see the pink orb on whose shattering the adventure started. She looked up and saw a pretty blue-green bird. It was a beautiful one, its feathers didn't shimmer as it moved its head to watch her, Its red eyes were always judging, always watching.

Yes, the beautiful bird unsettled her. It never spoke to her, never once opened its yellow beaks. But somehow, Kagome knew her name, Tori, and she knew that knew that it was her own cowardice that created her.

Just like it was her fear that Tori would one day break free of the chains Kagome had tied against her wings. And yet, even though she knew she shouldn't, every time she was scarred and bleeding, she would hide under the Goshinboku's roots and she would leave Tori unsupervised. What Tori did with her body was unknown to her.

Tori always kept secrets close.

Kagome was Tori's Guardian far before she learned of the Shikon no Tama and yet she feared Tori. Tori was everything negative that Kagome faced, no, when had Kagome faced anything negative? Even Naraku had been killed by Tori. Tori was Kagome's secret, her scapegoat, the one who made sure Kagome's pure heart remained pure. Tori was her Guardian as much as Kagome was her's.

And yet she feared Tori. Perhaps it was Tori's insanity that caused Kagome to recoil every time those blood eyes looked her way. Or maybe it was her disgust at herself for relying on a mad _bird_. She didn't know.

Kagome took a deep breath and did something he never had before, she spoke to Tori. "Hello, Tori."

She then proceeded to go into the Goshinboku's roots far deeper than she had ever before and it was only then, when Tori was sure that Kagome won't come out did she knock away the chains that she had so long ago broken and stretched her unused wings.

Taking a deep breath as she made her way through her the everchanging landscape, from Kago's memories which made this inner world to the walled lake that was her's.

"Kagome, Kagome..." The call of the unseen Aoi Tori rang deceptively far, as a large _feral_ bird's shadow marred the landscape, very much like a blotch of ink on an otherwise perfect calligraphy.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hanyouprincess3, you're awesome. You have no idea how happy that made me, so here, a quick update just for you.**

**-Nizhal Paava**

When Tori opened her eyes to the world what she saw was an over abundance of white. A white ceiling, white curtains, white walls and white sheets. It was also too bright. Like in Kago's inner world, she felt she was floating in a sea of white with nothing to keep her company but the bed she was lying on.

Her arms were heavy and there were casts and tubes running down the length of her limbs. Her ears felt the same way they had that one time Kago had been in an airplane. Absently searching for a gum to chew, she caught the attention for her Kaa-chan and another man, both of whom she had no idea were in the room.

"Ah, Kagome. You're awake." Her Kaa-chan said. Kagome. She wasn't Kagome. She was Tori. How dare Kaa-chan not notice. "This is Ishida-san. He's-"

"I am not Kagome!" Her voice was hoarse from not being used in some time and Tori noted with some surprise, none, that she was crying. How was it that Kaa-chan could make her cry with just one word? Her, Tou-san, Jii-san, they all seemed to have an innate ability to make Tori cry. One look was all it took.

"Kagome, please. We've been through this before. _Tori_ is-" Her every word a rusted blade forced deep into old wounds. She had started trembling, hurriedly barricading the wall, singing desperately to calm the lake in preparation of what was to come. Tori closed her eyes, scrunched them up; she didn't need to see Kaa-chan's face. Hearing her voice would be enough.

Only it never came.

What did come was the man's, Ishida-san's, voice as he cut in between Kaa-chan as he stopped the violent waves that had started on the lake. Tori was grateful to him. More than she had thought possible to a man whose face she haven't seen. "Please. Calm down, Higurashi-san. I'd like to speak to your daughter alone."

Broken in the middle of her words, Kaa-chan sounded lost as she tryed to put together what had happened. "O-Of course. Why not? I'll be outside."

Footsteps, soft and slow. A door being slid open and then closed with reluctance. Barely heard footsteps growing softer until no longer heard.

It was only after these sounds were heard, did Tori open her eyes.

"Thank you." She told the man who she could not help but think, at first glance, must have quite the heart breaker when he was younger. The second said different, it was his heart that had been broken. "Thank you."

The man didn't reply except to say that it would be better for her to move from the shrine and live in another town. Karakura. The name sounded familiar, but, "Who on Earth are you?"

This got a dry smile, and he pulled the chair closer to the bed. When had he sat down? "Ishida Ryuuken, Director of Karakura Hospital. I have already put in a request to move you to my hospital. I am an, let's say acquaintance, of your father's. He too agrees with my descision. You will, once you have caught up with the syallabus, be joining Karakura High School. My own son, Uryu, is a student there. He will help you get settled. You will also be staying at my residence for your father's is hardly a place for a young teen."

"I don't get it."

"Foolish, aren't you?"

"Hey!" The protest sounded weak, even to her.

"I mean, you will be packing your bags and heading over to Karakura, or will you rather stay here, where you aren't even acknowledged?" Ishida-san sneered at the bed ridden girl who immediatly answered, "Leave."

"Thought so. Now, stay there while I go and convince your mother." He said getting up and leaving the room.

"It's not like I can walk, now, is it?" Tori asked glaring at her own legs, the left one had bandaging on the thigh and she had broken her right ankle. If anyone had walked in right now, it would have been quite a sight. A nearly mummified young girl interrogating her legs, genuinely angry with them, asking them why they broke.

And then the tube light went off. "Karakura Town!"

Ten, she was going to see Tou-chan again.


	4. Chapter 4

**I have a review! Granted it's only one but, I have a review! I am HAPPY! Kage kitsune of light, just you wait. I have a review! **

**^I sounded a bit mad, didn't I? Sorry about that. But still... My first review! **

**Nope, don't regret that.**

**-Nizhal Paava**

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><p>It had been a month now.<p>

All that time spent in the Sengoku Jidai helped; her pain tolerance, apparently, was surprisingly high. Most of the bandages had come off,even the one around her head. It had left a very large scar shaped somewhat like a nerve cell of all things. Her hair didn't grow on the scar tissue but it was high enough on her forehead that it could be hidden by her bangs once they grew out. When will they grow out? I don't want to have walk around bald!

Just think, having to say, 'Hello, I'm Higurashi Kagome. I'd prefer it if you call me Tori', to a whole classroom while bald! Ah, the horror. They'll call me a skinhead! Will they all laugh at me? I hope they won't, please don't. I won't be-

"Higurashi-san!" A crabby comical boy in white yelled at her. What was his name again? Ishida Uryu, that's right. Ishida-san's son. Chibi-Ishida had spent the most of his time trying to get her to catch up so that she can join school the moment the cast on her leg came off. Truth be told, the idea of going to school left a funny feeling on her tongue.

Chibi-Ishida was a good teacher; he had even managed to get her to remember some of the dates in history. Really, history was to Tori what math was to Kago.

Granted, he was a melodramatic prick half the time, but all in all he was a good friend to have.

"Uh, Higurashi-san? You there?" Said prick was now waving his hand too close to her face and staring right at her. Eh, would you look at that, "Chibi-chan, our eyes are the same color."

"Chibi-chan?" Then clearing his throat and with the air of someone whose jaw hadn't dropped to the ground a second ago, said "No, your eyes are a different shade, Higurashi-san."

"Chibi-chan, do you have a crush on me?" She deadpanned and was rewarded with a tomato red Chibi-Ishida spluttering as he denied all accusations. It's funny to see him like this. What will make him break? "And, I've told you Uryu-kun. Don't call me Higurashi-san. Higurashi-san is Kaa-chan."

"Why 'kun'?"

"I can't call you 'Ishida-san'. 'Ishida-san' is your father. And 'Uryu-san' sounds weird." She said smiling.

"Just call him 'Ryuuken' and be done with it." He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

"Chibi-chan, do you have a crush on someone else?" Will he react the same?

"What is up with the sudden subject change?! And don't call me Chibi-chan!" No, different reaction. This time, he went full swing drama queen.

"Whatever you say, Chibi-chan. Answer my question."

"Well..." His blush from before came back and now he refused meet her eyes, finding Tori's ugly, scrawny hand writing absolutely fascinating.

"Could I meet her one day?" That's enough teasing for now. Damn, he must have it hard. Ishida Uryu was still blushing and still avoiding Tori's gaze.

No reply.

"Uryu-kun, explain this bit to me." She said, holding up book, opening a page and pointing to a paragraph, all at random.

He sighed and looking grateful, took the book from her. He read the page once, twice, flipped some pages. He sighed again, this time in resignation.

"Higurashi-san, we haven't reached this lesson yet. Thank you for dropping the topic."

"Hmm. Call me Tori. I'm the Bird in the Cage!" She said, doing a little fist pump.

"Ah... Can I ask, Tori-san, are you the only other.." He looks disturbed, should I be worried? Will he start to recoil from me just like Kago does? But she didn't let those thoughts show on her face, where she smiled a tad too wide and said, "No. It's only me and Kago."

And then noticing his confusion she added, "Kago is who you know as Kagome. Kago's a fool. She actually think she's Kagome now." She grew quiet after that, what she said next barely audible. "And I suppose she is, now."

"To-" She can hear it. In his voice. The fake pity, the forced sympathy. It was almost as bad as Kaa-chan's rejection of her. Picking up the same book she had taken before, she said again, "Uryu-san, explain this bit to me."

Anything to get crash course with Ishida Uryu over as fast as possible.


	5. Chapter 5

**I wanted to update yesterday, but one thing led to another and, well. In this chapter, we see Tori's past and we finally meet (sort of) Tou-chan.**** Please, please is one more review too much to ask for? One. Please?  
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**My chapters seem to get longer now. Huh.**

**- Nizhal Paava**

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><p>She didn't need a crutch to walk anymore.<p>

Oh, what she wouldn't give to _murder_ a certain Spider again.

Brutally, at that.

She would make him beg for death and at the end, would do exactly what he had planned for her. She would fill up her right hand with her miko-ki - it had to the right; because the right is used for auspicious events and would bring good fortune - and she would drive it through his guts, not the chest this time, and with her left hand she would yank him up by that obnoxiously long hair and she'd watch as the light left his eyes, if there was one to begin with, and she would laugh that horribly clichéd witches' cackle. And she would pull her hand out and -

Suffice to say, dreaming of watching Spider die by her right hand was...something of a favored pass time for her. Tori enjoyed it and she would occasionally, find herself wondering how it would feel to kill someone else. The thought was frighteningly not enough to deter her fantasies.

She didn't know how long she had walked, explored, the huge mansion that was the Ishida Residence, she didn't know. But she was noticing a recurring pattern, a silver pentacle usually on a blue background. Must be a family crest.

She would ask Chibi-chan later.

The mansion also gave her thee feel that it was in the past overrun by servants, but now, the house is deserted. The mansion is occupied by Ishida-san alone, even Chibi-chan lived separate. She'd been right, one month, one week and four days ago, it really was Ishida Ryuuken's heart that's been broken.

She stayed out of his way. She had learned his routine from snippets she gathered from both Ishida-san and Chibi-chan and had confirmed them the moment she could walk. Tori wasn't as foolish as _Kagome _had been. She had seen the auras of everyone in this town. She had stretched her senses wide from the hospital. She had done the same in Tokyo, but the diversity!

White for your average soul, pink for her, the sole miko, a white-blue for Ishida-san and his son, red for - she didn't know, but it felt other worldly, black for those howling, empty ones she heard far too often in this town. She read the auras when she got to kill Spider too, it green for youkai and a shade of mud for a hanyou.

She wasn't a fool. She knew Ishida-san knew she was different and that he wasn't sure what she was. Chibi-chan might have guessed at the strange _purity_ in her aura and even though he obviously was spiritually attuned, his aura wasn't nearly as refined, as deadly, as Ishida-san's. Ishida-san's which had tried to _dissolve_ her aura for his own use. He had tried to consume her. The most frightening part? It had been a reflexive reaction, done without conscious thought.

No, Uryu wasn't nearly as good as Ryuuken.

She stopped outside a door, no different from the hundred others she'd passed. The wood was dark and the door knob was silver.

She grabbed on to the cold metal and turned it. Pushed it open. She ignored the emptiness of the room and looked around. The grey and blue paint palette the mansion was becoming boring now. She wanted pink, brown, violet, red, blue, silver, gold. The colors of the life that _Kagome _had stolen from her.

No, it belongs to Kagome, not to Tori who should have left just like Tou-chan. Forever.

After all, Tou-chan had made Tori just like Kaa-chan had pushed her down.

The room was dusty and looked like it hadn't been used in years. It had a bed with four posts and an overhead made of wood. The room was bigger than her's was. And it had the one thing her's didn't. A mirror.

A full length mirror with a very decorative wooden frame. Granted, there was a thin piece of cloth on it, but she had to do was pull it away. Pull it away and she would most probably see a face with blue eyes, a small nose, soft lips and raven hair no the face no longer long. She would see that the face had a scar shaped like, she believed, a nerve cell wrapping around most of the left of the head she would see. The head of the nerve cell leaked unto the left temple, she would find. The scar was large and was on her face, but she'd asked Ishida-san to allow her to keep it. She'd see a body attached to this human face; that body would be slim and it would be pockmarked with scars, the biggest being a near-perfect circle on her stomach. The prettiest would be the star-shaped one in the side. All of the scars on that body were made by Kago, they were her marks.

The nerve cell and the circle were her's.

Simple as that.

This body was shared. Not truly belonging to either one. Neither of them would forget now. She had made sure of it.

She walked in. Turned. Closed the door shut and locked it for good measure. She found that her hands were trembling. She wanted to see those blue eyes and know, have confirmed with her blood eyes, that it was Tori who held the well this time and not Kago. Kago who had so easily managed to fool everyone into thinking she was a Kagome, a Kagome who had never existed in the first place.

She found herself standing in front of the mirror with her right hand hovering in front of the cloth. She and Kago had always wondered how they were such a strange color which no one else in the family had. She had asked once, all those years back when she was the only one in this body, if Kaa-chan knew. The answer was the same as all always, delivered in a tone that said that no more would be said on the topic.

"It must have come from your father's side."

Their relationship had already started to fray by the time. Seven months later, Tou-chan would take her out to the amusement park, let her go on her favorite rides, buy her an ice cream, vanilla with sprinkles, and on reaching her Kaa-chan's apartment would stop outside the gates. He would kneel to her height, give her a kiss on her forehead and tell her that he wouldn't be able to see her again. She had been too small to understand what he was trying to say. She had merely looked at him confused a bit of fear. What did he mean? And he had smiled and pushed her in the compound and had rung the door bell for her. The door, that traitorous door, had opened too quickly, and Kaa-chan had snatched her from him. And all he had said was, "I hope you'll be all that you were supposed to be and more, Higurashi-san."

Kaa-chan slammed the door in his face and ran into her room. That was the first time she'd heard her mother cry.

It had made her feel so weak, so helpless that she too had started crying. One inside the room cried for a lost love and wasted dreams and the other outside cried for the simple fact that her mother, who is supposed to so strong, was crying.

She didn't remember a lot of him. Just the way he smelled, how safe she'd felt, and that he had strange colored hair _and_ eyes. She'd asked him once in that annoying sing-song tune most kids used at that age, "Tou-chan, why are they like that?"

She had nearly poked his eyes out that day.

"Tori-chan," he'd said in the same tune, "they are like that for the same reason your eyes are like that."

He was the only one who would call her Tori-chan, Kaa-chan did too at a time, but she stopped when he left. After that, it was Kagome.

Did that make her Kagome then?

She ripped the cloth off the mirror. In the mirror stood a girl who was tall, with short black hair that reached till the top of her ears. This girl, with the face of the Kagome Kaa-chan wanted, stared back at her with blue-grey eyes, more grey than blue, and blinked when she did. The girl had a scar, nerve cell-like, and on lifting her shirt she found the circle scar as well.

She looked into those grey-blue eyes again and smiled a bit too wide at the fact that those eyes held Tori again after these years.

She turned and ran.

Her ankle hurt but that didn't matter. She had to get to a phone, _now. _She had seen one, horribly antique, but wired up oh so many turns away.

She heard her bare feet pounding at the carpeted floor and heard her heart pumping. She laughed. The last time she had this body she had been too young to remember what this felt like. She would remember this. Never forget it. Stop!

There! The telephone. It was one of those models where she had to turn the dial around to enter a number. Pulling out a piece of such innocent looking paper that his number on it, the same paper he'd swiped from a telephone directory in an other room, she turned the dial as was required of her.

Her hands were trembling again. This time too in anticipation.

The phone was ringing on the other side. One, two, three times it rang.

Four, five, six, the phone nearly slipped from her suddenly sweaty hands.

Six, seven, eight, the phone was picked up on the other side.

Nine, loud boy yelled out fr someone else. She didn't know the name. Her heart sank, the telephone directory was an old one. The number might have changed by now. The phone was snatched from the loud boy.

Ten, in that annoying sing-song tune children used, a man said, "Konnichiwa, This is Urahara Shoten. How may we help you?"


	6. Chapter 6

**This story is finally getting somewhere. I'm sorry for the loooong absence to anyone who still reads this. I am not good at forcing my muse back like most others. We meet Tou-chan and since I suck at sappy stuff I am changing the POV for this chapter. It will Karin.**

**-Nizhal Paava**

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><p>She was running low on supplies. The snotty, fat, high-school uniform wearing ghost was back again even she'd poked his eyes out with a chopstick earlier. And Ichi-nii had looked at her like that during breakfast. Like he would do anything, make a deal with the demons if he must, to see again. To be invited to the world of Pluses and Hollows and most of all Rukia-nee again.<p>

It had taken all she had not to lean over the table and hug him. Because that was Yuzu, not her.

So she did the next best thing; she shot him down and ran from the place. She was supposed to go to school but she gave Yuzu the slip and headed to Urahara-san's shop.

It didn't matter, her attendance had been a wreck in her old school as well. What was one more?

She knew the way to the shop by heart now. She could get there blind folded if she had to, she had done once just for the fun of it.

Jinta was sweeping the grounds and looked up at her. He seemed a bit disappointed but greeted her just the same before yelling for Urahara-san. He appeared almost instantaneously - a burst of shunpo; she wasn't as hopeless as Ichi-nii had been at sensing reiatsu - and greeted her with his regular, "Konichiwa, Karin-chan. Welcome to Urahara Shoten. What may do for you this fine morning?"

"Cut the act, Urahara-san."

"Ah, come in then." She did, pulling out her purse to pay for all the things she'd buy. Urarhar-san would never accept money from her; 'we owe your brother, far more than possible to repay', but none the less, she brought money each time and each time they bicker about it. It was their routine and Karin wasn't going to be the one who stopped it.

Urahara-san and Ichi-nii had a ritual. Ichi-nii would call him a merciless slave driver and it would start. Why can't she have one?

Urahara-san had her follow him to back of the store where he kept the spirit-y(?) products. Hollow repellents, plus repellents, and many other items the names of which she tuned out. No matter what she said, she would be leaving this shop with free samples of all the new products feeling as though she'd robbed him.

He was just trying to convince her- Karin Kurosaki- to buy strawberry lollipops when she felt it. A reiatsu; it came and went, flitting at the edge of her awareness making it seem so far away. It had a bite to it such that she could feel the sting on her arms, a strange purity right behind her although the reiatsu was so obviously far away.

She didn't like it. Every instinct in her told her to get rid of the presence. It seemed vaguely dangerous to her. A bit of static stung her nose when she turned in its direction - strange. Casting a sidelong glance at Urahara-san who had brought his paper fan up, she said, "Alright, it's a strange one. it stings and it feels far away and right behind me and -"

"And you want to get rid of it." It was another ritual of sorts. Every time a new reaitsu showed up, she ha to tell him what it felt like to her. She didn't mind, yes it was boring but at the same time it was another small glimpse in.

And she would be a fool to let that slip through her fingers.

"Yes."

"She's headed here. In fact, Jinta will be greeting her," He held the fan at his side and looked as though he knew something and this Urahara-san, of course he know something. "in three, tw-"

"Welcome to Urahara Shoten!" Jinta yelled out from the front of the shop.

"Tch! So close." She had to smirk at that. The man had to be at least a hundred years old and he still behaved like a child. "Ah well, I got to get going, Urahara-san. Ja."

"Jaaa. Buh-bye. Don't keep skipping school,huh." Damn that old geezer!

She walked down the same corridor she had done before searching for a good place to drop the cash. It had to be some place he wouldn't look but he couldn't completely miss it either.

She couldn't find one.

The flower vase she used to put the money in had disappeared and so had so many other potential hiding places. Ah well. She could just give the money to Jinta and be done with it. No, that would be cheating.

What should she-

There was a girl standing in the shop, probably around Ichi-nii's age. She seemed dazed by the assortment - not really - of candy in the shop and was currently fingering a lollipop.

It was from this girl who the weird reiatsu from earlier had come.

The girl hadn't noticed Karin yet,and she took it as opportunity to watch her.

The first thing Karin noted was a scar on her face. It looked somewhat like a flower and was positioned on the left of her forehead. It vaguely suited her. Karin also saw more scars and lighter patches on her arms and legs. Those seemed out of place. Her pockmarked skin was tanned unevenly as though she had been out in the sun for too long and it was only now that she saw the bandages on her ankle.

The next was that her black hair was cut horribly; short near the scar which apparently extended back and around waist length on the right. It was also windswept and the girl was breathing heavily, her face red from maybe having run. She saw Karin then and she turned around to look.

Her eyes were blue and she smiled showing more teeth than nessacary, it was unnerving. But Karin smiled back anyway for no reason other than politeness. She supposed she had to make small talk now. Where is Yuzu when you need her?

"Do you-" It seems she didn't need Yuzu now after all. The strange girl had started. Only to be interrupted by Urahara-san who made a show of his peppermint lollipop which he kept insisting her to buy of Yuzu.

"Why won't you listen, Karin-chan? I keep telling you to- Oh my." He immediately forgot Karin as he saw the strange girl. An acquaintance?

The strange girl had an equally strange expression on her face. It was equal parts eager, hopeful, relieved, anxious and terrified. Strange girl.

"You know her, Urarhara-san?" she asked but was completely ignored.

"No one told me you would be coming." That trademark paper fan of his was long forgotten; seeing Urahara-san's full face as he talked was unsettling.

"Ishida-san told me you were told, I guessed he lied." She smiled again, this time no teeth was shown. She looked pretty then. And then she stopped, the smile disappeared and her face was a blank slate.

Ishida-san meant Ichi-nii's friend Ishida, right? Were they related then?

"You are staying with Ryuuken then?" Urahara-san seemed oddly hopeful now.

"Hm." She nodded. "Kaa-chan and Ishida-san were school friends, apparently. So, he was able to- No."

The girl whose name Karin still didn't know shook her head and walked to Urahara-san and hugged him without preamble. What the hell? He hugged her back. What?

They were speaking to themselves, mumbling. Karin caught only one name, "Tori-chan."

Feeling out of place, she looked around and caught Tessai's eye. The big man looked as though he would cry but he nodded at her. So, Karin did something she learned well because of Ichi-nii; she ran.


End file.
